By now you’ve probably seen the viral video of the racist white woman going ballistic in a parking lot in Cheektowaga, New York (about 300 miles from Manhattan) for nearly four straight minutes, shouting the N-word at a black man in his car because, she says, he had frightened her two young children by, he says, starting his car.

I hadn’t, but I looked it up. Enjoy an idiot acting like an idiot:

Are there racist idiots like that in this country? You betcha. So what?

If you are white, I ask you to imagine for one minute, how you would feel if you were minding your own business, starting up your car in a parking lot when suddenly a stranger starts screaming in your face and repeatedly calling you a name that in this society is synonymous with utter human worthlessness. A word that evokes a cultural ancestry that was shackled, raped, beaten, kicked, lynched and spit upon every single day.

I know you can try to imagine it, but you can’t actually imagine it because it will never, ever happen to you. How could your imagination access such a thing? To be honest, though, I’m less interested in white people trying to imagine what it feels like to be vulnerable to racism or to experience racism, so much as I am interested in white people making a concerted effort at deference to our authority on the matter.

This is the goal of many of the grievance mongers: to get you to agree that, if you’re white, you don’t have a right to an opinion on racial issues. They are a cop black, and you WILL respect their authoritah!

But complete “deference” to Rebecca Carroll’s “authority” on all racial matters becomes difficult in the next paragraph:

Because your liberalism is not empathic, it’s politic. Your belief that racism is bad is not a gamechanger for us. Your self-serving magnanimity regarding those other white people who had slaves 100 years ago does not endear you to those of us black people who were not slaves but continue to live within the confines of and be punished by the systemic racism that found its nascent stronghold in the institution of slavery.

I’m . . . pretty sure Americans didn’t own slaves “100 years ago.” Imagine the shock Ms. Carroll will experience in December 2015, when newspapers around the country announce the 150th anniversary of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery.

At this point it seems relevant to note some salient publicly available facts about Carroll’s life that suggest that, just maybe, it has not been one giant long slog of constant and unbearable racism at every turn.

I grew up in rural New Hampshire, as an adopted child in a white family. . . . Although my son is mixed and light-skinned, I subscribe to the Halle Berry, “one drop” rule: I’m black, so he’s black. My white husband doesn’t give me a hard time about this. I should also note here that my husband, a sociology professor who specializes in race and social policy . . .

Well of course he does. More:

In an effort to meet both our criteria, we enrolled in the Early Steps program, a New York City-based nonprofit organization that helps to place children of color in independent private schools.

So, I will respect Ms. Carroll’s authoritah concerning the fact that sometimes she thinks people are being racist to her and it hurts her feelings . . . if she will respect my authoritah concerning certain objective facts, such as:

This society is not so pervasively racist that it prevented white people from adopting her.

This society is not so pervasively racist that it prevented a white man from marrying her.

She has access to a program that will help her child get into a private school because of the color of his skin.

Slavery ended in this country way more than 100 years ago.

I agree with Ms. Carroll that racism still exists in this country. The attitude of the white woman in the clip above is sickening (even if, as appears possible, she was provoked to some degree) and, while such behavior is rare, it is certainly not unheard of.

I would remind Ms. Carroll that some of that racism in this country comes from black people. I’m not interested in Ms. Carroll’s inevitable dismissal of this so much as I am interested in her making a concerted effort at deference to my authority on the matter.

I would also like to remind Ms. Carroll that many incidents in this country that are alleged to be instances of white on black racism turn out to be hoaxes. From Tawana Brawley to nooses at Columbia to the Oberlin racism hoax of 2013 and the Grand Valley State University racist dorm door — the whole “When We Black People Say Racism Is Real, Please Believe Us” thing gets a little tough when so many black people who say racism is real . . . turn out to be lying about their particular experiences.

It’s obviously a fruitless exercise to try to persuade someone who makes their living magnifying racial grievances that racism is not the greatest problem facing black America these days. A hint of what is can be found in Ms. Carroll’s piece about finding a school for her son:

At one school I visited on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a group of black teenage boys stood outside, shouting back and forth at each other, “What up, nigga?!” My son would likely feel more isolated at that school than he would at an all-white school.

Well, good. Good for him, and good for you. But please recognize that the horror of that school is not created by white people, but by a culture primarily enabled by Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, in which mothers marry a government rather than a man, and positive male role models are nowhere to be found.

If you want to help eradicate the problems that black people face in this country, stop whining about your relatively privileged life, and start talking about that.

45 Responses to “Article: White People Need to Shut Up About Race and Respect Black People’s Authority”

Heh! The little girl(?) in the pink suit looks like a high yaller or redbone to me. She ought to check daddy’s pedigree or maybe hers (she doesn’t look very Aryan) for a touch of the tar brush going back. One drop rule!

If you think I am exaggerating when I tell you that the cumulative effect of experiencing and anticipating racism throughout my life has made a part of me feel constantly and irreparably enraged, you are wrong.

nonono sweetie pickles i most definitely do not think you are exaggerating i believe you i believe you

It sure does. Primarily and predominantly among blacks. I know a lot of people and the only people I know who I could say even shows a hint of racism are a few black guys. Race seems to always lie just below the skin with these guys and they’re always on the look out for some thing or some one to bitch about. Oh, and they’re both plantation leftist Democrats. Go figure!

If you want to help eradicate the problems that black people face in this country, stop whining about your relatively privileged life, and start talking about that.

But but but that would be hard, and require so much more work. It’s so much easier to feel like a heady combination of victim and preening moral-high-ground-occupier who gets to tell everyone around me to shut up while IIIIIIIIIIII talk.

I was in my car once, driving through a (to me) new neighborhood in my city, having gotten lost. Drove past a few adults who seemed to be angry, and one, then two of them sounded like they were yelling at me. Then there were a few others who yelled at me, in Spanish, saying (paraphrased) that I had no right being there and, white bitch, you’re not welcome. Since I understood Spanish I got what they were saying and it didn’t feel good. Am sure I looked shocked, and I left the neighborhood as soon as I could drive past slowly(a few of them were a few steps into the street).

This was a long time ago, and it shook me up. So I understand how this gentleman feels and he is quite justified – that woman in the video is vile, and the presence of the children compounds the offense, not only because she’s swearing and raging in front of them (from their reaction it seems to me that her anger is a common sight to them) but also teaching them to be racists.

But did I ever blame my incident on all Hispanics or claim all Latinos were racist? Um no. And I would have been racist for doing so. (Actually much later I found out that there had been some big racial incidents right before I moved there, which perhaps explained – but didn’t excuse – the timing of the racial animosity. Years later I worked in that neighborhood for several years, and even now attend church there – still a majority Latino neighborhood.)

And that lady who said:

I know you can try to imagine it, but you can’t actually imagine it because it will never, ever happen to you.

Well, she’s dead wrong because it did in fact happen to me. Caucasians need to check their privilege? Grievance-mongers IMO need, rather, to check their assumptions. And their own tendencies toward racism.

Obama and the MSM have in my opinion has set back racial relations many decades between his public statements, plus his and their eagerness to assume racism as the source of opposition in anyone disagreeing with them. It’s a horrible thing, should be a crime, having a US president do that, and it’s one that IMO should have gotten him impeached before any of his other offenses.

The race mongers have redefined racism as Just disliking a person of a different race, especially if it involves a black person. It might well be that the black person in question is an asshole and you simply dislike him because of his assholism and it has nothing to do with his race.

In a fair and equitable society black people have just as much right to be assholes as do people of any other race.

If you want to help eradicate the problems that black people face in this country, stop whining about your relatively privileged life, and start talking about that.

I have heard it stated that if Afro-Americans were a country they’d be the tenth wealthiest nation on earth. Now, even if they would be the twentieth, that tells me they’re still bitchin’ about stuff none of them experienced and crying about stuff none of us white folks ever did. And they’re doing it while enjoying a far better lifestyle than any of their “brothers” in Africa or around most of the rest of the world.

I would also like to point out to Rebecca Carroll that no one on this blog ever owned slaves nor practiced Jim Crow. As a matter of fact I’m sure several of us have ancestors who fought and perhaps died fighting against slavery (myself included). My family has been in this country since the mid 1700’s and fought in every war including the Civil War. How about Ms. Carroll’s family? Or are they all academic bluster and no balls?

I am surprised Ms. Carroll allows her husband to leave the house.
Something tells me he has a home office with a heavy door and a deadbolt. And some whiskey.
He probably got his PhD by letting them read his journal and then introducing them to his wife

Oh, and having lived in a few communal environments with members of many hues
and lived in many black neighborhoods, worked with lots of different black workers,
I can say with authority that blacks are more conscious of skin color (not just white
but all the shades in between) than most whites are.

In some cities there are social dividing lines among blacks that are not crossed without a lot of
trouble for blacks that don’t belong on a particular side of those lines.

They’re predominantly in southern cities.

You won’t hear that talked about publicly but it’s the truth and one they keep hidden.

It’s one of those “dirty laundry” topics you might hear someone being hushed up for
speaking about it.

So perhaps we should recognize that they are an authority on racism since
they practice it on themselves.

I grew up in Richmond, California. Yeah, that Richmond. I went to Richmond Union High School, where the ratio of blacks to whites was about 40% each. Let me assure the good liberal that I have often had a black teenager get in my face and scream at me until they almost turned blue. The cause? Because I was white and only because I was white. There are racists in this country of every color, and we will probably never be rid of them until they die off. But to fail to acknowledge black supremacy desires among many is to rewrite history. It is there. Many blacks do feel that they are superior to whites and are proud to tell them about it.

So after close to 400 years on this side of the ocean. After slavery. After Jim Crow. Whites are ALWAYS surprised that blacks see racism everywhere. Of course that could be that whites have a tin ear when it comes to racism, and can never figure out why blacks find some things so irritating. Like Mark Cuban assuming he just stating a “fact” when he finds YOUNG BLACK MALES in hooded sweatshirts “suspicious”. As if millions of Americans young and old , of every race creed and color, of every point of national origin, didn’t also wear the same thing. Now I agree that Bill Belichek strikes me as up to no good, but my opinion might be colored by the fact that I’m a Jet fan. What surprises me about that little video, was that this woman never felt that the black guy might leap out of that car, and in a fit of righteous anger; beat her into bad health. I guess Doctor King has taught her all blacks are non violent – when all blacks are actually hyper violent. Hmm, is that referred to as cognitive dissonance?

Whites are ALWAYS surprised that blacks see racism everywhere. Of course that could be that whites have a tin ear when it comes to racism, and can never figure out why blacks find some things so irritating. Like Mark Cuban assuming he just stating a “fact” when he finds YOUNG BLACK MALES in hooded sweatshirts “suspicious”.

Mr. Giles, am going to let you read your statement again and take a wild guess as to why I find your post so irritating. The hypocrisy would be funny if it weren’t so thorough and uncons—oh heck, who am I kidding, it’s hilarious.

She’s not just a jerky racist, she’s mentally ill. She says she’s bi-polar, perhaps she’s got that and more going on. It’s not like she’s a normal person expressing a socially acceptable within her social set.

I enjoy being a clean, articulate, conservatively-groomed, white man, in Chicago. I think the white man part counts. Substantially. I think it gives me a little extra advantage in most interactions. White men are the ruling class, or its supporters, and everybody knows it. I don’t apologize for it and I will not be embarrassed into not taking the advantage.

Mr. Freeman replied, “If you talk about it, it exists. It’s not like it exists and we refuse to talk about it. Making it a bigger issue than it needs to be is the problem here.”

Yes, Mr. Freeman is rich and powerful and the guy above is not. But listen to the lady above carefully. Why was she mostly angry? Because the guy was filming her after she hurled a racial slur at a man for starting his car — and she knew it could affect her negatively if it got put up on YouTube (hence the lawyer threat as opposed to someone who, if she really thought her kids were in danger, displaying fear and taking them away and out of the camera’s eye that she hated so much, ASAP).

Then she lost her temper and things went downhill fast.

Real racists are vilified and mostly shunned in this country, and she knew that. That alone is an argument against “this is typical white people behavior” claptrap.

Part of Ms. Carroll’s cultural deprivation seems to involve her parents not introducing her to the fable of “The Princess and the Pea”. For those so deprived, there aren’t enough mattresses in the whole wide world.

I dunno about racism but I have zero interest in black culture, almost no empathy or time for the Georgia telemarketer who can not make themselves understood to a white cracker, and I will continue to school the young people I talk with about the perils of urban existence and, in particular, finding oneself in the company of the wrong people or in the wrong neighborhood at an inopportune time.

None of the above is racism or any alloy of same. I know consciously, and am ever aware, none of us are acceptable to God as we are, or in our wildest fantasies. If you have some other standard of righteousness, good for you. Now kiss off.

apparently the ignorance gene doesn’t care about your skin color … and I would bet that if Ms. Carroll was to see a picture of me and my semi-white skin, she would assume I harbored racist tendencies … which is ironic since that itself is pure racism …

I’ve live in the deep south (Atlanta and Florida), the northeast (PA and NY) and in California and in my 57 years the most racism I ever experienced was in New York City while living in Harlem for 4 years.

As a community African Americans are the most consistently racist group I have ever witnessed in America.

One of the worst and (IMO) potentially long lasting effects of this horrible presidency is the carefully crafted meme that anybody who dislikes Obama’s policies or his ethics or his work habits or his personality/speech tics just cannot stand having a “black man as president”. I imagine there are some people who do feel this way and it is wrong to deny that there are some out there. But it is also ridiculous to assume that the vast majority of Americans can’t stand the idea of a black man as president after electing him twice. He began his first term as the messiah. His plunging poll numbers now signal sudden onset racism? No, I don’t think they do– any more than W’s plunging poll numbers reflected reverse racism against a white president when he did some stupid and unpopular things.

The black family structure and middle class structure has been destroyed. But by government and public education unions–not by individual “privileged” whiteys.

she also reminds me of my experience visiting my friend, who w*rks at the VA, for lunch.

foe whatever reason, one of his cow-orkers, an older black woman (she was no lady) joined us, and, when we got to the post office to run an errand, she, speaking to him as if i wasn’t there, said something about “your white boy friend”… (yes, he’s black).

being of sound mind, i piped up from the back seat with, in my best ghetto accent, “if you see a boy, you’d best knock him down…”

she actually blanched, and that was it for having to take guavno from her… it was also the only time she joined us for lunch. 😎

IMHO, if any black resident here in America wants to fight racism, they should start with the person they see in the mirror, and w*rk out from there through family & friends. the rest of us are over it, so maybe they could try to be as well.

When black people and their guilty white liberal friends say that we need to have an honest discussion about race what they mean is they will talk and we must shut up and listen. Only an masochistic or senile white men would ever talk honestly about race. No good can come from it. Thus, we only hear the voices of black people and lying white people who desperately want those black people to like them.

Wow. I do believe we have the first recorded example of Oreo Guilt. It’s when black people who didn’t grow up in “De Hood” start feeling “inauthentic” from coming from privileged (what they think of as “white”) backgrounds. This is a sad attempt by the little princess to gain some street cred and convince others (and possibly herself) that she “ain’t no Oreo”.

Cupcake, you practically have the Nabisco logo tattooed on your forehead.